Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve been wanting to blog about the Mothers Circle Cookbook for a few months now. The Mothers Circle is a wonderful organization dedicated to helping intermarried families learn, celebrate, and integrate Jewish traditions into their family lives. I am a Women’s Advisory Board member of the Jewish Outreach Institute, the organization that created the Mothers Circle program. It’s a terrific resource for interfaith families who are raising Jewish children.

Recently, the Mothers Circle published a short cookbook called (not surprisingly!) The Mothers Circle Cookbook.

Last week, I decided to try a recipe from the cookbook – Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was submitted to the book by Mothers Circle member Kathy Kersul-Wiener. Of the recipe, she writes:

After several years of suffering through store-bought Passover “treats,” I decided that I’d better learn to make them myself. I think the secret to this recipe is that the chocolate chips overwhelm the matzo.

I have to say, these cookies are really tasty! With all of that butter and chocolate, how could they not be?? I did find the chocolate to be a bit heavy-handed; the original recipe calls for 3 cups of chocolate chips, which made the cookies too sweet for my taste. I have adapted the recipe by reducing the amount of chocolate chips to 2 cups, which is more than enough chocolate for this Shiksa. If you’re a big fan of chocolate and sweet, you may want to try 3 cups like the original recipe suggests. Either way, this recipe is a keeper!

For those of you wondering what matzo cake meal is, it’s simply matzo that has been ground very fine into a powdery texture. It is generally used for baking Passover treats. Most grocers who have a kosher section carry it during Passover.

Note: According to a blog reader, this recipe originally appeared in Marcy Goldman’s book A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. This was not cited in the Mother’s Circle Cookbook, so I was unaware of the connection. I have not had a chance to check out Marcy Goldman’s book, but if this recipe is any indication, I’ll bet it’s worth a read! 🙂

Amended Note: Another reader said that this is NOT a recipe from A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. Go figure!

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Hi Jacob– it would be difficult to recommend a gluten free substitute here without first testing the recipe. Gluten free baking is tricky business, I wouldn’t want to steer you in the wrong direction without first trying it myself.

The cookies came out really good. I used all matza meal and tried to grind it a bit to make it slightly finer and i think it worked ok. Since the honey adds a lot I would try and half the sugar or put fewer chocolate chips. These cookies definitely made my holiday better 🙂

I had a great recipe for Passover banana chocolate chip cookie but can’t find it anywhere. A search brought me to this one that is almost like the one I had except for the bananas and farfil, which I cannot find in Ocala, FL and cake mix is so I’ll try this one. Whenshould mashed bananas be added?

Love this recipe! Last year I had to bake another batch because everyone ate them! I put the second batch in the freezer. They freeze so well everyone ate them frozen!! My husband prefers them frozen. I’m not sure where I can hide the batch I’m baking this year!

I have made this recipe for years and everyone LOVES it! I would like to try and make it dairy free so we can eat them at the seder we are hosting for the first night. I was wondering what you would recommend? I saw that there were some previous posters that had luck with using margarine but didn’t know if the amounts needed to be changed?

I still have a batch in the oven and couldn’t wait to taste one while it was still warm Without a doubt, these are the best Passover cookies I’ve ever made. I used all cake meal (instead of matzo meal), but followed the rest of the recipe to the letter. I will make these cookies year ’round. I’ve frozen cookies before, ahead of the holiday, and am going to freeze these as well. I think they should freeze well.

Thank you for this recipe. I’m not Jewish, but in my faith, we observe the Holy Days, and the spring holy Days of Unleavened Bread begin in just two and a half weeks. We don’t eat or use any leavened products during that time, and don’t even have anything leavened in our environments; this recipe will be great to have during the DUB because I REALLY like chocolate chip cookies, but have not been able to have the during the spring holy days since traditional recipes call for baking soda. I’m going to enjoy this recipe, I can already see that 🙂

Emily – you probably could, but the recipe is meant for Passover when Jewish cooks who keep kosher do not use traditional flour, and instead use matzo. It would probably turn out ok with regular flour, but I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t be certain of the results.

I made these last night and my 12 year old tested one this morning. I was hesitant with the honey, but I followed the recipe to a “t” even doing the 2 cups of chips. Am so glad to say they are taste-tested and Passover approved!!! Thank you so much.

These cookies could not be served at the Seder or with a meat meal because, as your recipe notes they are dairy. They would be par eve if they were made with coconut oil (healthy) or the kosher for Passover margarine (not healthy). To those who posted questions about substituting regular flour for matza meal/flour – they would not be kosher for Passover!

Terry unfortunately I haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free matzo (which can vary from brand to brand), my guess is I’d need to develop a totally different recipe to make these GF. Wish I could help, but I won’t have time to test these again before the holiday. I’ll keep it in mind for next year though!

Hi Jill– they should look like they do in the picture. Did you accidentally leave out the egg? The recipe contains no baking powder or baking soda. Many have had fantastic results with this recipe so I’m wondering if you might have inadvertently left something out.

I have been cooking all day so I’m a little fatigued and completely forgot the eggs in this recipe. The cookies turned out INCREDIBLE! They’re a bit flat, of course, but still a hit! Thanks, Tori! You make this convert look like a rock star on all holidays. 🙂

I just made these cookies in preparation for my Seder on Saturday evening. They are amazing and they were so easy to make! You’d never know they are for Pesach! Thank you for posting this recipe! I know my family will love these cookies as much as I do!

WOW, Torey!!!! I made these last year and thought they were fairly good. But today I made them with TWO cups of brown sugar and THREE cups of chocolate chips, and they are FANTASTIC!!!! I could not believe the difference a half cup of brown sugar made, plus the extra cup of chocolate chips, of course!! I am throwing away my old recipe for sure!!!

Just found this recipe, looking forward to making it. Going out of town before Passover, coming home the night before seder, so I am thinking of making the dough and freezing them unbaked. Will bake them when we get home so they will be freshly bakes for seder. Any experience with freezing the dough? Wondering if I should defrost them before baking or bake from frozen? Thanks.

My daughter just made these for Pesach. We didn’t have quite enough matzo cake meal so we just substituted matzo meal. I worried because they seemed a little gooey and spread out really bad on the pan. After letting them cool I am ecstatic to say “They taste just like regular chocolate chip cookies!” If someone had handed me one and not told me they were KP I would not have known any different. This is definitely going into to our keep file for Pesach!

I read the great reviews of these cookies, then ran out and bought all of the ingredients so I could take them to last night’s Seder. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out awful. First of all they didn’t look perfect like the photos show them and they were dry and just not good. I wasn’t about to take them to the Seder and had to come up with a quick substitute. I threw out all of the cookies and am not happy to have wasted money and time on these.

Hi Jeana– that is odd, as so many readers have had great experiences with these. I can’t help but wonder if you made a mistake in following the recipe. At any rate, I’m sorry they didn’t turn out better for you.

Hi Myra, I have never frozen these particular cookies but regular chocolate chip cookies freeze just fine, so I imagine these will too! Put them in a ziploc bag and suck out as much air as possible before freezing.

Beautiful recipe! Really want to try these this for Pesach but really need a Pareve recipe, do you think if I sub pareve margarine, equal parts, this will do? Thanks so much, the children will be so grateful!

Thank you for answering my first message. Next time I will try adding a little bit of granulated sugar, but not much. I think mine are smaller because I used a measuring Tablespoon. Did you use a regular tablespoon, the kind we eat with? When I make cookies that call for using a teaspoon, I do use a real TEA spoon, and not a measuring teaspoon. Could that be it? At any rate, who cares? This way, I can eat more cookies because they are small, and not feel guilty, right? I never weigh myself during Pesach anyway.

I don’t get it! I made this exactly the way you say, and I didn’t get 2 dozen cookies, I got 5!!! I used a measuring tablespoon, is that why? Anyway, they are much better than the recipe I have used for two decades, but I think they could be a little sweeter. Should I use extra honey or extra brown sugar? I rolled a few in granulated sugar, and they were better. Also, could I substitute granulated sugar for all the honey? Or do you feel that would change the flavor too much? Many people say honey is healthier, so maybe I should stick with it. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes and ideas! I am still getting comments about your apple challah that I made for Rosh Hashana.

Hi Marsha 🙂 I’m not sure why you got 5 dozen cookies, that is very odd. Are you sure you didn’t accidentally use a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon?? Anyway, I’m glad they turned out yummy! I wouldn’t sub the honey, but if you want to add additional sweetness to the batter you can add some granulated sugar while creaming the butter, honey, etc.

Hi! I just made these for the fourth year in a row and wanted you to know I changed something. I am not a fan of honey, so this year I wanted to make the cookies with white sugar instead (I still used the same amount of brown sugar). I Googled and found out that I should use 2 1/2 Tbsp. sugar in place of 2 Tbsp. of honey, and 1 tsp. of water, so I did. They are even better than before!!! I wanted to make them early and freeze them. They will be in our basement chest freezer so I am not tempted to sneak in there and take some before Passover! My husband had one, and he loved it! Forgot to say that I used three cups of chocolate chips.

Your cookies look divine! I have celiac and crohn’s disease, so I cannot eat them. Although I can eat the Pesach food that is considered “non-gebroktz” I am not Orthodox, but I know that non-gebroktz means that they do not cook with the matzah meal. I think that this is a Hasidic tradition because they are stricter. It is actually this stringency that enables me to enjoy the seder. I am pretty sure that all the non-gebroktz food is already gluten-free. I know that they sell baked goods that are non-gebroktz and gluten-free before Passover. At any rate, Tori, I know you are busy, so I do not expect a reply to my comment. Since food history is your specialty, I hope you consider blogging about some non-gebroktz goodies for the gluten-free Passover people out there! If anyone would know how to explain the origin of this tradition, it would be you.

Tori, I am sitting here looking at page 301 of Marcy Goldman’s “A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking”, and you have no worries, her recipe is different. Marcy’s calls for 1 cup matzo cake meal, 1 cup of potato starch and 2 cups chocolate chips. There are other differences as well (hers has no honey or regular matzo meal) Hers is a book that I often use, but I’m sure your recipe above is equally excellent, as usual. Thanks for posting it.